One of the most common criticisms of NYC carriage horses is that they “live a nose-to-tailpipe existence” and therefore, say the animal rights extremists, carriage horses must be banned and removed to the “country” where they will not “suffer from respiratory issues.”

This is nonsense. There is no empirical evidence to suggest that carriage horses are harmed by the air in Manhattan.

Equine veterinarians have repeatedly noted upon examining the carriage horses in NYC that they do not exhibit evidence of respiratory illness, especially compared to similar populations of stabled horses.

Dr. John E. Lowe, examining 130 carriage horses in 2008, observed, “Once again I spent 10 hours with these horses and didn’t hear one cough at the jog or in the stables. This is an unusual observation for stalled horses. The development of respiratory allegories is almost a given in a percentage of stabled horses.”

Why is that?

First we need to understand what causes respiratory illness in horses. The main cause of respiratory distress in horses is poorly ventilated stables and/or stables with poor hygiene. Carriage horse stables are extremely well-ventilated. Every NYC carriage stable was built as a stable, and as such, has lots of natural ventilation in the form of windows on all sides of the buildings. Furthermore, as the stables were modernized, the carriage owners added additional ventilation, in the form of industrial fans and exhaust systems. Finally, NYC carriage stables are kept clean by a 24-hour-a-day crew of stablemen who make sure that the ammonia fumes from soiled bedding that irritate lungs are never allowed to build up. Dr. Stephen O’Grady attested to the air quality and cleanliness of Clinton Park Stables during a visit in 2013:

While the law requires that the stables and stalls must be clean and dry, O’Grady was surprised to the extent that workers carried out that mandate.

“When you walk into stables, a lot of times they’ll have a smell to them,” says the International Equine Veterinarian Hall Of Fame member. “In other words, they smell like a barn. They smell like horses. They smell like horse manure. During my visit, when you walked into this place, there was no smell whatsoever.”

As anyone who spends any significant amount of time in a barn, this is no easy feat, O’Grady says.

“You could not get the smell out of there in a week to 10 days if you tried,” he says. “This is just another indication as to the conditions and cleanliness in which these horses are housed.”

Animal rights extremists often talk about “toxic fumes” that carriage horses inhale all day from being “nose-to-tailpipe” with cars. Dr. Harry Werner, past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, found no evidence of respiratory disease when he examined the carriage horses in 2010.

A common refrain among critics of the carriage horse industry is that the animals are “nose-to-tail pipe” with traffic and, as a result, there is a health hazard.

“I don’t disagree that city air is not the same quality as it is on the front range of the Rockies,” Werner says. “However, if that is a factor to consider, then one would expect to see some evidence of respiratory disease in these horses.”

“We didn’t see a one,” Werner says. “If people are worried about air quality, fine, let’s worry about air quality. Where’s your evidence? Evidence is key to all of this.”

First of all, carriage horses spend relatively little time in traffic. When they do, their noses are not anywhere near the tailpipes of cars. “Nose-to-tailpipe” is an anatomical impossibility. The exhaust from cars does not stay right next to the tailpipe either; it diffuses. Air quality studies such as the Nantes’99 study in France have used fluid dynamics to show that in urban areas, particularly in so-called “street canyons” (such as you’ll find in New York), the air is frequently cleaner in the flow of traffic than on the sidewalk or in neighboring buildings where pollutants accumulate, due to prevailing winds.

In 2013, the City of New York released an air quality study that showed that NYC now has the cleanest air it’s had since the 1960s. That means that NYC probably has the cleanest air it’s had since before the industrial revolution. Sulfur dioxide levels had dropped 69 percent since 2008 and soot pollution was down 23 percent since 2007. Most of this improvement stemmed from reducing pollution from the dirtiest kinds of heating oil that are still being used in the city. New York City has already reaped the benefits of reducing pollution from automobile traffic, insofar as cars continue to improve their emissions (and have over the past 40 years) and the number of cars driving into Manhattan on a daily basis has dropped 29 percent since 1998, to 1980 levels (which were 2.5% less than 1960 levels).

So as the air quality in New York continues to improve, so what’s the big hurry to get rid of carriage horses? Animal rights extremists claim that despite evidence that air quality is improving to levels not seen in a half-century or more, carriage horses would be better off breathing “fresh country air.” But is the air outside NYC really all that clean? Turns out the answer is no.

Even if the air were horrendously polluted in New York City (and it’s not, especially not compared to the 19th century), it’s still the same air that we breathe and that our children and our pets breathe. If we want to protect carriage horses from the air they breathe, the solution is not to banish carriage horses to farms where the air is no cleaner, but rather to continue to improve the air in New York City and everywhere. That would do us all some good.

In the meantime, breathe easy. The carriage horses are fine. That’s a breath of fresh air next to the nonsense spewed by animal extremists.

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Latest from Save NYC Carriage Horses

11/29/18 NY TIMES: “Equus has had its own battles. In 2014, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) picketed when the festival showed a trailer for “The Last Horsemen of New York,” Mary Haverstick and Michele Mercure’s documentary about Manhattan carriage drivers. This year Equus will screen the entire film, which argues that the carriage industry does not mistreat horses. Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to eliminate the practice for humane reasons, but the film suggests that some of the opposition actually stems from real estate developers’ desire to acquire the stables’ land. Although Diersen does not agree with PETA — Equus gives an annual tour of the Clinton Park Stable.”

“Don’t you think he’s cold?” a woman asked upon sight of a carriage horse on a 35 degree snowy day, in a blanket. “No, he’s a horse,” the driver responded. Horses bodies are naturally equipped for the cold, which is generally their preferred type of weather, and they grow in a winter coat to keep them comfortable. Many horse owners will even report their horses choosing to stand in the snow or rain out on a pasture, rather than taking optional shelter from it. There are even some NYC carriage horses who have drivers that struggle to keep their blanket on as their horses consistently grab and toss them to the ground. (See video in comments below.) While there is debate in the horse world over blankets being used at all, New York City carriage horse regulations require them. Every carriage driver knows their horse’s preferences as some tend to grow in a winter coat thicker than others and will work up a sweat that could cause them to catch a chill if they are kept wearing one while working. Other horses do better with one on throughout their workday, so you will see some variety among the horses on the hackline each winter.

New York City got their first snowfall of the season yesterday and the horse carriage industry responded appropriately! Following their regulations, horses were blanketed when they were standing on the hackline at 40 degrees or below and wore rain blankets in wet weather while working at 55 degrees or below. Though many horses are comfortable below zero on pastures, NYC carriage horses don’t work when temperatures drop below 19 degrees, ‘nor in harsh weather extremes per their regulations. When the Mounted Police Unit and NY Health Dept’s equine veterinarians determined the snow was falling fast and heavy enough that a weather related work suspension would go into effect, they sent drivers a text notification just after 4pm, and every horse still working followed protocol, finishing the ride they were on and returned to the stable. No carriage horse went back to work until shortly after 10am this morning when the suspension was lifted. Drivers took their horses home keeping them safe in the street by driving them primarily at a walk in borium-coated shoes like the ones worn by mounted police horses to prevent slipping. NYCLASS doesn’t want you to know any of that. Executive Director of NYCLASS, Edita Birnkrant (previously of Friends Of Animals before being fired for harassment of horse carriage drivers) went around the hackline photographing horses before the suspension went into effect, and caught horses in the middle of returning to the stable, falsely insinuating wrongdoing among them to their mislead followers. Horses currently rest comfortably on flat ground on their hacklines, where they have been for over 160 years. They are beside traffic, undisturbed by it, but if NYCLASS has their way, moving their hacklines into the park, they will have to work in traffic far more than they are used to doing on every ride and be forced to stand on hills at some of the proposed locations. In fact, every point they complain about on their Facebook page will either not change or be worsened by the proposal they are trying to push through the D.O.T. (You can find out more about it at www.SaveCentralParkSouth.com) The proposal itself is actually designed to drive the industry out of business.

As the first snowflakes fell, most drivers called it an early day and headed to the stable around 2pm having given enough rides to cover their horse’s expenses for the day. A few drivers put up with the snow a couple more hours before the suspension began to ensure they could cover the cost of their horse’s daily care. (As humans aren't as equipped for the cold as horses are, most drivers bundle up in ski suits while they stand by their equine partners.) Most NYC carriage horse’s board costs more than most carriage drivers’ apartment’s rent! How much do you spend on quality footwear? Imagine you had to buy two pairs at a time every four to six weeks; That’s what horse carriage owners spend just on their horses four shoes per regulation. Most of the money you spend on a carriage ride goes directly to the upkeep and care of the horse giving you that ride. While every driver will keep a portion of that ride to support their own family and sustain themselves to be able to provide their horse with the care they deserve, it’s typically in direct benefit to a horse to take a ride with them, especially in the slower season leading up to and following the December holiday season. You can find out more about the NYC carriage horse industry at www.CarriageOn.com

(Photos: NYC Carriage Industry's First Snowfall Of The Season 11/15/18; Horses comfortably blanketed on the hackline, being driven in Central Park, and outside the stable upon returning from work.) ... See MoreSee Less

It was close to midnight when I was shampooing my carriage horse's legs after our shift. I knew just beyond the stable walls there were streets of honking traffic, pedicab bicycle bells, people shouting, and the general New York City hustle and bustle. But at the end of the day, the stable was quiet. Breaking through the silence, sounds of the horses seemed magnified, echoing off their stalls. There was the chewing of hay, slurping of water from their continuous flow water dishes, and light pound of hooves against straw bedding over rubber mats. Occasionally I'd hear a snort, a snore, or a squeal followed by a kick on a stall door as the horses interacted with each other. Straw rustled between pawing hooves, circling their stall for a comfortable spot to call it a night. Some of the horses let out a relaxed groan as they lay down for their deep sleep. Every horse, unaware that there were humans working to move their familiarly comfortable hackline from where they preferred it to be and other humans fighting for their welfare to be sustained. (Find out more about the proposal at www.SaveCentralParkSouth.com)

“I also do work on sleep in horses and I’ve written several papers on sleep and one thing you’ll know when a horse is really comfortable in their environment is if they will lay down to sleep, and what happened was almost invariably we came in the morning, at least half the barn were lying down in their stalls. And they don’t do that because they’re tired, they do that because they can actually feel comfortable in their environment and they can collect the REM sleep that they need and I actually did see a few REM-ing, so that’s pretty cool.” -Dr. Joseph Bertone, DVM, MS, DACVIM, WesternU College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) Professor of Equine Medicine on a visit to Clinton Park Stables, www.youtube.com/watch?v=24IUP-wTZeo

Curious about the living conditions of the horses in the NYC carriage horse industry? The EQUUS Film Festival partnered with New York State Horse Council - Southeast Region to host a free stable tour at the largest NYC horse carriage stable on December 2nd, 2pm-4pm! Ever since the stable doors have opened to the public, animal rights organizations like NYCLASS have had trouble perpetuating myths about NYC carriage horses, like the one that said their stalls weren’t large enough for them to lay down in. Security will be high to keep animal rights extremists off the property, so reserve your spot for the tour at filmfreeway.com/EQUUSFilmFestival/tickets

Photo Credit: Jill A. (NYC carriage horses laying down in their stalls at Clinton Park Stable for their deep sleep 11/7/2018.) ... See MoreSee Less

This is a comment on NYCLASS’s FaceBook page that I’d like to respond to where my comment won’t be deleted, as is common practice with NYCLASS’s page admins when they see comments that don’t further their agenda: Let me get this straight, you insulted someone and falsely accused them of mistreating an animal they have devoted so much of their time caring for and you’re surprised that they didn’t respond to you politely? If you don’t have any equine experience, it’s an ignorant move to make assumptions about them. Perhaps if you sought out factual information rather than jumping to false conclusions, you wouldn’t have had to feel negativity towards that carriage driver and you could have praised him for taking such good care of his horse! While there are times carriage drivers may be busy working on the hackline, most drivers are willing to answer questions about their horse and job, provided they’re asked politely. “Could you please explain to me how a bit works?” would be an acceptable way to phrase a question, while “That bit must be painful for your horse to wear, so how come you let him wear it?” would not be. (Bits don’t cause pain to horses when they’re used properly. The horse will only feel some pressure from this tool when used by a driver which allows them to communicate with and request direction from their horse.) While there are a variety of draft mixes, and every horse in the NYC carriage horse industry is built to pull something, many of them are Standardbred horses. They have a skinnier build than a bulky plow horse, but they’re full of muscle which makes their job of pulling a carriage quite easy. Many of them come from the Amish that use them on their own carriages, and some come from the racetrack. Every horse cocks their hind leg while resting when they are comfortable and at ease with their surroundings, as they don’t need to be on all four hooves, ready to take off. A comfortable horse will lower their head, have their ears tilted back, and often nap in this position. The look of a relaxed horse should not be confused with an uncomfortable horse. ... See MoreSee Less